In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people. ICE and Border Patrol are beating and detaining innocent civilians. Autistic kids are at high risk.
The Trump administration’s weeks-long immigration enforcement campaign in Minneapolis, which has shuttered schools and terrified students and parents, has left one group particularly vulnerable: children with disabilities.
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Maren Christenson, executive director of the Multicultural Autism Action Network, said she lives so close to where [Renee] Good was shot that she’s worried tear gas will seep through the family’s windows from the ongoing protests.
Christenson’s 14-year-old son, Simon Hofer, has autism and she can’t predict how he would respond to an ICE agent.
The boy said he’s worried — not so much for himself, but for his friends.
“I have been feeling angry, scared, sad,” he told The 74 on Thursday. “It feels kind of hopeless sometimes and overwhelming. Friends of mine and classmates are afraid to go to school and so they attend online.”
His mother has told the special education community that even if someone is Caucasian, is a citizen, has a disability and can articulate their challenges, they are not free from peril.
Her advice? “Comply: do what they tell you to stay safe.”
But she’s unsure whether that strategy would work for people with autism who can become unmoored by such an encounter. Stress might hamper their ability to communicate, she said.
“We have held a number of community conversations and brainstormed, asking, ‘What could we do? What are people doing?’” she said. “But the truth of the matter is we are in uncharted territory. There is no guidebook, no best practices for when your city is under siege.”
